Israel eta NATO zale estatu guztiak Palestinaren aurka (6)

UN General Assembly overwhelmingly calls for end of Israeli occupation

Aipamena

The Cradle@TheCradleMedia

Ira. 27

BREAKING | Netanyahu gave the orders to wipe out an entire neighborhood in southern Beirut from the UN headquarters in New York.

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MenchOsint@MenchOsint

Ira. 27

Two E-3B Sentry AWACS off Lebanon, with transponders switched off, and the aircrafts reappear a few minutes after the bloody Israeli airstrikes on Beirut. There is no coincidence, the US helps Israel bombing Lebanon on a daily basis. The reason why they don’t admit it x.com/lebanonjets/st…

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FT Economics@fteconomics

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[Music]

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is call

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[Applause]

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[Music]

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[Applause]

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the z b

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[Music] the voice of David benan declaring the

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establishment of the state of Israel in May

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[Music] 1948 the balfor Declaration was a letter

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sent by British foreign secretary Arthur balfor to a member of the British House

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of Lords Lord Rothchild on the 2nd of November

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[Music] 1917 this letter sent to a leading

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figure in the British Jewish Community a 100 years ago had repercussions which

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even its authors cannot have [Music] imagined whatever its real intentions it

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went on to have a profound impact on the Middle East and its people and its effects still resonate

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across the region [Music]

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today in 1914 these soldiers were fighting on the battlefields of Europe

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in the first world war the allies Britain France and Russia fought the

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Central Powers of Germany Austria Hungary and the Ottoman Empire for 4

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years but the land and sea war was not the only

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Battleground muscle was also being flexed behind closed doors as allies

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conspired how to redraw maps to their own Advantage when the conflict eventually ceased of this area and

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expand out in this Reg Sir Mark Sykes for the British and franois Jorge Pico for the French

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plotted how to divide the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire assuming it would

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finally fall the syes Pico agreement planned secretly to divide it into French and

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British spheres of influence France taking most of the Levant Southern Anatolia and the musul area while the

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British extended their control over the southern Levant expanding Eastward to Bagdad and Basra and all the land

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between the Arabian Gulf and the French territory historic Palestine then still

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part of the Ottoman Empire was a bone of contention and would be put under

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International [Music]

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Administration

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[Music] that

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I think the British felt that there had not been enough government involvement

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in concluding the sypo agreement with the French and in that process they had

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not really Protected Their interests well enough for a post-world War era in

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which the British Empire would continue to seek to be a dominant force in European Affairs and so

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really officials across White Hall including Mark syes himself felt it was a bad

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deal and it’s of huge significance that when

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they’re making these discussions Jews and Zionism are not discussed Jews were not to feature in the new cartography of

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the Middle East which was to be based on the idea of the Arab

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Nation Zionism was the movement supporting the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the area it defined as the

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historic land of Israel the move movement was active in

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early 20th century London especially because of the persecution of Jews in

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Russia and Eastern Europe Theodore Herzel had founded the

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Zionist movement in the late 19th century but Jewish people in Western Europe had not rushed to support it

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because they were integrating quite successfully into society zionists believed that all Jews should someday

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return to that country one of the problems was that Palestine belonged to the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman

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Empire um was not clear that it wanted massive Jewish immigration into

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Palestine and the British government offered to let Jews move unimpeded in

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great numbers into Uganda if they wished um but in any event it really didn’t

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happen and it didn’t happen because a majority of zionists felt that Herzel

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was selling them out and that the only place for Jews to move back to or at

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least conscious Zionist Jews to move back to was Palestine in this I think

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Britain began to look on the Zionist movement as a possible partner in justifying a renegotiations of their

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agreement with the French you see for Britain simply to claim territory against what they’ already concluded in

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an agreement with France could create diplomatic problems for the British but if they were to make a claim to

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Palestine not out of self interest but in order to advance a great historic

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ideal of the restoration of the Jewish people to their biblical Homeland that this could justify an adjustment of the

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terms of syes Pico in a way that the French would accept the British wanted

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somehow uh and and more and more increasingly they felt that the Jews

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held the key to winning the war um and so they had to figure out how to bribe

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the Jews to support them Sir Mark Sykes had succeeded in

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drawing the line he wanted from acre in the west to Kook in the East but for

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some in government this was not enough opportunity toize control over the

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British were using the Jewish national movement to secure Palestine for themselves this is when Heim vitman is

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really going to find open ears and tend Downing Street in the foreign office in

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the colonial office and it’s Paving the way towards that critical decision in

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November of 1917 and so I think you can direct you can draw a direct

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connection between Britain’s sudden acknowledgment of Zionism as an idea and

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an ideal and what they were disatisfied with in the terms of

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sypo Kim vitman was a chemistry lecturer in Manchester who had become a prominent

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member of the British Zionist movement he was politically well connected and rubbed shoulders with

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senior figures in government so hyim vitman was uh Russian by birth he was a

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chemist um and then he joined the Zionist movement um he climbed in the

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Zionist movement he moved to Great Britain before the war well before the war Maybe 10 years before the War Began

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he was not before the war very well known in the English Zionist movement he

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was pretty well known in the world Zionist Federation um but he was by no

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means the most visible Zionist when World War I began in Great Britain vitman later wrote in his

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memoirs about having been introduced to a British government Minister Herbert

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Samuel Samuel was Jewish but vitman was apparently concerned that

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he might be anti-zionist however Herbert Samuel

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turned out to be extremely receptive to vitman and went on to write an official memo in

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1915 setting out a number of different possibilities for Palestine and the

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Jewish

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people um Health Minister HEI

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for

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but he didn’t find willing ears in whiteall or in the colonial office for

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schemes that involved the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine Britain

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was really concerned with two things by the time that the first world war had broken out they wanted to win the war

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first and foremost this was an imperative for the survival of Britain and its Empire and secondly they wanted

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to ensure that coming out of the war Victorious that their empire would benefit from the victory so at this

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stage Kim vitman and Herbert Samuel’s ideas about the rights of the Jews to

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settle in Palestine did not find much sympathy in the corridors of power in

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London a disappointed vitman wrote to a friend asking whether there wasn’t at

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least a discussion to be had about what he called the chance for the Jewish

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people I realized of course he went on we cannot claim anything we are much too

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atomized for it what the debate did do however was to

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throw together vitmen the Russian Jewish immigrant searching for Homeland and refuge from persecution with Herbert

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Samuel and Lord Rothschild firm members of the British Jewish Elite established

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in society and part of the political and capitalist

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class Zionism for the most part across all of the community was actually in the

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minority but certainly most of all within the Jewish Elite because it

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threatened the notion of them as 100% committed members of British

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society and this was complete anatha for somebody like EDR montigue who becom

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Secretary of State for India for him Zionism is his worst nightmare the idea

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that Jews are not satisfied simply with being citizens of Britain or other countries around the world but always

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longing to go back to the land of Israel for him he wanted to demonstrate that

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the Jews of Britain were first and foremost British it’s important to remember that

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for people like Rothchild Zionism had actually been a threat you see the elite

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in British jewelry had fought for generations to gain Acceptance in British Society it was only with the

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arrival of Disraeli in the 19th century that Jews entered Parliament and could rise to become Prime Minister and for

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people of High Finance or banking interests the

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real elite of the Jewish community in Britain their struggle to demonstrate

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their place in British Society meant that Zionism with its claims that Jews were a people apart and should be a

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nationalist movement in their own right were

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anathema

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when

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it’s vitman that makes the difference and I think he was probably unique in his ability to persuade leading British

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figures that the Jews were in fact a vast subterran Ian influence which they

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were not um that all Jews were zionists which was far from the truth and that

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therefore the key to winning Jewish support was to offer them Palestine

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vites men talked up the degree to which the Jewish community supported Zionism in order to get his message across to

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the government but for the British it seemed to be about self-interest about winning

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the war recognizing Zionism would be closely linked to gaining Global Jewish support

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for this objective on which it saw its future resting so the British motives

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for supporting Zionism really we can boil it down to two elements of British

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self-interest at that time not an emotional interest in Zionism or a love

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of Jews and the Jewish plight and a desire for a return of the Jews to the Holy Land no for very specific

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self-interest matters of policy they were first of all all of the British

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government agreed that they wanted to mobilize behind Britain and the Allies

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this idea of Jewish power in the world they were like all of the different

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policy Elites in the war believers in the notion that Jews were of tremendous

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influence in the corridors of power around the globe if the British government appeared to support Zionism

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they would win over World jewelry to their side and all that that entailed the British were convinced that

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Zionism was really at the center of the Jewish heart in May 196 Sir Mark Sykes had

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agreed his secret deal with the French Sykes Pico would form the basis of the

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future carve up of the old Ottoman Empire so he immediately turned his

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attention to Palestine still part of the Ottoman Empire and how to use Zionist

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Ambitions to outmaneuver the French formal contact between the

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British government and the Zionist followed he immediately phoned Herbert

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Samuel and told him about the plan and Herbert Samuel then phoned Kim vitman

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and vitman brought with him naham sakalo this meeting took place on the

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11th of April 1916 it took place at Moses gaster’s house in

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mavil um and gaster wrote in his diary afterwards how proud he was that this

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meeting which he thought was the most important meeting that had ever taken place in the history of Zionism had

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taken place at his

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house

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and Moses gasta very quickly understands that syes is looking to gain support from supposed Jewish power in the world

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and gasta works with this idea and manipulates this to consolidate sykes’ interest in Zionism and we see actually

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the British government becomes very close already in 1916 of issuing a public declaration in support for

18:59

Zionism now in the end this doesn’t happen that year the plan syes gotot

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Herbert Samuel to pass on to the Zionist leaders involved joint British French

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administration of Palestine and a charter guaranteeing British support for

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[Music] Zionism but his idea was

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[Music] rejected they didn’t want an Anglo French condominium in Palestine they

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wanted the British uh to protect them not the French and that’s because they

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thought that the French always sort of converted their colonized people into

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becoming Frenchmen and what they wanted was to remain as self-conscious Jews and

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they thought that the British uh would leave them alone and let them do

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that

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man bolstered by their Newfound credibility the British zionists thought about

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making specific demands after the Sykes meeting but events soon overtook

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them on the 6th of December 1916 British prime minister aswith

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resigned in the change of government Arthur balur became foreign secretary

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under Prime Minister David Lloyd George Lloyd George is CS

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[Music]

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[Music]

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[Music] de

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alfor was of rather philosophical bent uh and I I think he uh wanted to think

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in theological terms uh he wanted to think in historical terms um uh and it

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was with that frame of mind I think that that he uh approached the whole

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question

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[Music] David Lloyd George AJ balur and all of

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those who supported the Baler declaration within the British government we can absolutely categorize

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as being Riven with anti-semitic thinking and not only that but the thinking behind the Baler declaration

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that drove them to the Baler Declaration was from this anti-semitic thought the

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idea of Jewish power of Jewish cohesiveness and of a unified Jewish attachment to Zionism Above All

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Else [Music] whatever its basis the relationship

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between the British zionists and the government would continue to grow throughout

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1917 leading to the Declaration that would change the face of the Middle East

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and ultimately determine the Destinies of two different

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peoples by 1917 the war was shifting in the Allies favor and in the Middle East the British

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were moving through Sinai towards the borders of historic

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Palestine further north the Russian Revolution in February 1917 cast doubt on Russia’s continued

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involvement in the war as Britain and France tried to

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outmaneuver one another the British Zionist movement took on increasing

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political importance syes wants to get back in touch with uh zionists and think about

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how to incorporate Zionism in British planning for Palestine and at this moment we see a

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hugely important meeting taking place in the home of Moses Gast made devil in

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February of 1917 and this is the point in which uh

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syes meets for the first time Kim vitman andum

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sov um and other zionists in which it’s discussed what the zionists looking for

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um and the British interest in Zionism so he had to bring the zionists along

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without divulging what were the secret agreements that Britain and France had

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come to with regard to Palestine which was that they would jointly administer parts of Palestine at this meeting uh

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for the British government was Sykes and Herbert Samuel he was there on the other

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side there were um vitmen and tuo uh and

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there was Moses gaster and he brought a couple of his allies because he realized

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that vitman was beginning to push him out of the way the other very important figure was James Roth’s child uh who

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attended this meeting um at the meeting it became clear to

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Sykes that vitman not gaster was the most important Zionist

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this is also the moment where Moses gasta is dislodged um sy’s partner on the French

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side Pico hadn’t liked gasta gasta had been insistent that there should be a Jewish State and nothing less coming

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into being after the war and Pico uh clearly wanted zionists who were much

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more willing to compromise with the interests of the great powers and nakum sakov and K vitman were certainly happy

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to fit that bill the meetings between the zionists and

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the government seem to give momentum to the idea of British support for a Jewish homeland in

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Palestine and their potential role in its

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Administration but the secret syes Pico agreement between Britain and France

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which formed the basis of the future division of the Ottoman Empire plan to put Palestine under International

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Administration any change would have to be negotiated with France naam sov emerged as the man to

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talk to the [Music]

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French Soo became the acknowledged lead

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Diplomat for Zionism and all the accounts say that he had an extremely

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sort of elegant bearing and wore very fine clothing and that his manners were

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uh polished and polite and smooth silky smooth um so that he could talk um um on

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an equal basis with the representatives of the Germans Kaiser or the British

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government or whatever so the day after the meeting um between Sykes and the

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iist leaders Sykes brought Soo to meet

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the French diplomat uh Pico what Sykes wanted was for

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suo to a persuade Pico that Zionism must

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be taken seriously that Zionism uh really was the key to winning

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the war um um and that the zionists

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would only help the Allies win the war if Britain was the

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main power in Palestine not

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France

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British

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cabinet already it’s hard to know how much influence Sykes ultimately had over

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British policymaking he was given more prominence in British policymaking around the Middle East during the War

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years than he ever deserved he was a relatively ill-educated inexperienced

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man whose only connection to the ottoman world had been as a

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tourist so for this man to be playing such a role in the halls of power over deciding British policy towards the near

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East seems to us today to be anomalous indeed

29:32

ridiculous regardless of sy’s role things continued to progress for the zionists and in June 1917 British

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foreign secretary Arthur balur asked Kim vitman to present his demands as a

29:47

declaration and promised to try and persuade his government to adopt it the leading zionists formed a

29:54

political committee and drafted their demands and then submitted them to the British

30:01

government this original document was one of the first drafts written at the Imperial Hotel in London on the 17th of

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July 1917 it also introduced a new term and

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concept the national home of the Jewish people so in the initial Zionist

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drafting uh of the Declaration um there were protests amongst sist leaders to nakum

30:30

sov that there’s no mention of the terminology of a Jewish state that

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instead they’re talking about a national home and said that this is a betrayal of what the sists are trying to achieve and

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sof’s response was that we mustn’t go too far

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we have to take small steps we have to go with what is acceptable to the British government at this time and then

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slowly slowly we can advance our cause once we have this in

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hand on the 18th of sep September 1917 there was a meeting of the British

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war cabinet though foreign secretary Arthur balur was

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absent the Secretary of State for India Edwin monteu who was Jewish strongly

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disagreed with a declaration he was opposed to Zionism and said I deny that Palestine is today

31:50

associated with the Jews or properly be regarded as a fit place for them to live

31:56

Monte thought a French declaration supporting Zionism in June 1917 was

32:02

anti-semitic and negotiated changes to the British version as it went through several

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drafts

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for a few days later Secretary of State for

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war vicount Milner and the Jewish politician Philip Magnus sent a modified

33:07

version to the cabinet it Incorporated some of Monte’s

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changes including the caveat that quote nothing shall be done that might

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Prejudice the rights and political status enjoyed by such Jews who are fully contented with their existing

33:26

nationality and

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citizenship drafting especially by Lord Milner that appeared by September was

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closer to the language that would eventually be adopted in November of

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1917 namely speaking uh not about Palestine as as a whole uh but uh a some

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sort of Pres in Palestine uh on behalf of the Jews uh

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which is quite

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different the national home

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the committed zionists wanted to ensure the Declaration was clear that the whole of historic Palestine would be a

34:41

national Homeland exclusively for the Jewish

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people the latest draft was sent to Kim vitman who in turn sent it to the

34:52

Zionist movement in the United States for their feedback

34:57

uh there was some consultation here during the summer of

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1917 uh with the United States and and the early drafts that uh had had the

35:10

imprint of the Zionist uh uh elements in Britain um would have referred to

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Palestine uh in its entirety as being uh for some sort of Jewish entity and those

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elements event were modified before the drafting was

35:31

finalized another key part of the terminology that emerged in part of the drafting was in some British redrafting

35:39

where instead of for the Jewish people it was written the Jewish race now eventually this was taken out but I

35:45

think it’s very revealing that British officials wanted to use this kind of terminology because

35:52

after all this was how they understood the Jews of the world as being a racial group one that welded tremendous power

35:59

and also could be inspired altogether as one unit behind the cause of Zionism

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supported by Britain and the Allies it’s striking that the existing Arab people in the region were not named at all

36:12

they’re simply called the quote existing non-jewish communities in [Music]

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Palestine

36:40

[Music] [Applause] by October

36:46

1917 the final draft of the balur Declaration was ready awaiting only

36:51

British government final approval

36:57

there was a rumor that Germany was about to issue a similar declaration supporting the rights of the Jews in

37:04

Palestine when balur heard he rushed to get his final draft discussed at the

37:09

cabinet meeting on the 31st of October

37:16

1917 so when we think about the centinary of the Bala decoration everyone considers 2nd of November 1917

37:24

as the moment of the Declaration itself but it was actually agreed to by the British cabinet on the 31st of October

37:31

and this was a hugely significant meeting and in the minutes of that meeting balfor uh reiterates the

37:38

principal reasons for supporting Zionism and highlights its expected propaganda

37:44

effects uh amongst Jews around the world particularly in the United States and in

37:50

Russia the argument was was put forward most strongly by Lord balfor at the

37:55

meeting of October 31st uh and what he argued was that

38:01

issuing this declaration would be extremely helpful for the British uh in

38:08

solidifying the support of the United States uh and also encountering uh

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propaganda from Germany the critical thing to remember about British diplomatic pronouncements is that what

38:21

one individual says does not represent the views of the government as a whole and you will find many different points

38:26

of view among British officials in the Years 1917 1918 and right into the early years of the Mandate but the British

38:33

were very clear that they had not promised statehood to the Zionist movement they had no interest in doing

38:39

so the British did not support Jewish nationalism they did not support Arab nationalism they supported British

38:45

imperialism but this is also the meeting where uh Lord Ken who was a member of the war cabinet

38:53

disqui about the possible effects of supporting cism on the Palestinian Arab

38:59

population and the Palestinian opposition is completely disregarded Lord kuren wrote a paper to

39:06

the cabinet asking what was quote to become of the people of this

39:12

country there were over half a million Syrian Arabs a mixed Community with Arab

39:18

Hebrew Canaanite Greek Egyptian and possibly Crusaders blood they and their

39:24

forefathers have occupied the country for the best part of 1, 1500 years they

39:29

own the soil they profess the muhammadan faith they will not be content either to

39:35

be expropriated for Jewish immigrants or to act merely as hewers of wood and

39:40

drawers of water to the latter but his precient remarks fell on

39:46

deaf ears it’s Sykes who tells Heim bitman at the end of the war cabinets

39:51

meeting Dr vitman it’s a boy as though they’ve witnessed the birth of an agreement to create a Jewish National

39:59

home as a baby in the Middle

40:05

East the final draft of the balford Declaration was 67 words

40:12

long his Majesty’s government view with favor The Establishment in Palestine of

40:18

a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best Endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this

40:25

object it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may Prejudice the civil and religious rights

40:32

of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political

40:37

status enjoyed by Jews in any other country I should be grateful if you

40:42

would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation yours sincerely Arthur James

40:51

[Music] balur

40:56

well in terms of international law it really has very little standing in international law you know treaties

41:03

between nations have significance um uh but governments often issue policy

41:10

statements statements of intention about what they plan to do uh and those really

41:17

don’t have any standing as uh as a matter of of law uh for Britain this was

41:26

uh I suppose you would say a statement of its intention as to what it would do if

41:32

it were to take over Palestine which of course it it had not yet done as of

41:38

November

41:55

1917

42:00

two years after the Declaration a church leader in Jerusalem wrote to British prime minister Lloyd George about Jews

42:07

in Palestine trying to control holy sites Lloyd George’s office had said

42:14

that Kim vitman didn’t want to do anything affecting the rights of Arabs

42:20

it said he simply wanted to be involved in a council to help provide Refuge to Jews fleeing Russia and Eastern

42:28

Europe This exchange suggested that Britain felt it had not promised a Jewish state but simply a place for them

42:35

to live alongside Arabs when the League of Nations set out the British mandate in Palestine in

42:42

1923 it made Britain responsible for implementing the balur

42:48

Declaration as a result Jewish immigration to Palestine increased as

42:53

did Arab opposition to it expressed in a series of Palestinian protests against

42:59

Britain in the 1920s they understood the people of Palestine to be Muslims and Christians

43:05

but did not imagine that they would constitute a national community that would seek National Independence and

43:11

after the war very quickly when it becomes clear that Palestinian Arab nationalists are mobilizing against

43:19

sanism the British government are quick to see a major problem the Bal for

43:25

declaration had put in train a series of events that began to Signal its deep

43:30

flaws Arab descent built to the 3E Revolt between 1936 and

43:37

1939 it was a nationalist Uprising against the British Administration demanding Arab Independence and the end

43:44

of Jewish immigration it was in the peel Commission of 1937 that the British first recognized that instead of

43:51

balancing communities they had set in motion a rivalry between incompatible National movements

43:59

Jewish and Palestinian Arab and it was at that point that they tried to solv the problem by dividing

44:06

Palestine into two states Arab and Jewish through a partition plan and I think there you have the first

44:12

recognition or admission from British officials of the failure of the balur Declaration in May

44:18

1939 the British government published a policy document on Palestine called a

44:24

white paper it abandoned the partitioning of Palestine into two states and called instead for an

44:30

independent Palestine in which Arabs and Jews would share government it limited Jewish immigration

44:36

to 75,000 for 5 years and said that the Arab majority should determine future

44:42

immigration levels it also said that balur had not meant to create a Jewish State at the

44:49

expense of the Arabs any more than the McMan Hussein correspondence 24 years

44:54

before had promised promised an Arab state to Sharif Hussein of Mecca but the white paper met opposition

45:02

and was dropped the British government are quick

45:09

to see a major problem but there’s no way that they can back away from support for Zionism because this becomes the

45:15

basis for their justification for being in the holy land their commitment to supporting the movement in the Baler

45:21

declaration which becomes enshrined in international law in the terms of the Mandate for

45:27

Palestine so the British are stuck with Zionism they didn’t believe that

45:32

zionists wanted independent Jewish statehood and after the war it became very clear that actually the vast

45:38

majority of zionists didn’t only want statehood they expected it I think if we’re trying to assess

45:45

whether or not Britain’s policy towards Zionism in the first world war served British interests or not the first thing

45:52

we have to appreciate is the key reason that they supported sanism was based on an incorrect idea they believed that

46:00

they could mobilize something that they saw as Jewish power Around the World Behind the Allied cuse so first of all

46:07

that was entirely wrong and didn’t happen because this idea of Jewish power is fake is

46:14

[Music] false in September

46:19

1939 German expansionism led to the second world war over 60 million people

46:25

died including between 5 and 6 million Jews the majority in Nazi concentration

46:33

camps the British mandate ended at midnight on the 14th of May

46:38

1948 and immediately the formation of the state of Israel was announced justified by the terms of the

46:46

balur Declaration issued 31 years before while Israelis celebrated the

46:53

birth of their Nation 700,000 Palestinians were forced into camps and

46:59

[Music]

47:09

exile for Palestinians the bfor Declaration represents the moment and

47:14

Imperial power promised their land away to another people this is the desk where the Bala

47:22

decoration was composed it is that’s that’s they hold balur responsible for their

47:28

expulsion displacement and

47:39

[Music]

47:45

occupation

4 min

Creation of Israel – COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY https://youtu.be/reaL6tgDUXw?si=S-beYqGyDHk24Ha8

Honen bidez:

@YouTube

youtube.com

Creation of Israel – COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY

Our series on the history of the Cold War period continues with a documentary on the creation of Israel, Zionist movement, reactions and diplomatic maneuvers…

0:00

The idea of a state for the Jewish people had begun to gain traction by the end of the

0:05

First World War. This was formalized by the 1917 Balfour Declaration from the British

0:10

government, which proclaimed the intention of the “establishment in Palestine of a

0:16

national home for the Jewish people”. I’m your host David and today we will be talking

0:21

about the creation of the State of Israel. This is…The Cold War.

0:32

Although the British troops occupied Palestine in 1918 following the campaign against the

0:37

Ottomans, the League of Nations made this annexation legitimate in 1922 by granting

0:42

the mandate over the Palestine to Britain. The mandate included provisions calling for

0:48

the establishment of a Jewish homeland, facilitating Jewish immigration and encouraging Jewish

0:53

settlement on the land. Of course, as you might already know, the Arab population of

0:59

Palestine was opposed to the increase in Jewish immigration and settlement. This became the

1:04

source of a great deal of conflict and confrontation prior to the outbreak of the Second World

1:10

War, which the British were unable to stop. Over a quarter of a million Jews arrived in

1:16

Palestine between 1929 and 1938, and despite the efforts of the British to prevent this

1:23

immigration, the Jewish Agency as well as other Jewish organizations continued to help

1:28

smuggle Jews into Palestine. In the Palestinian mandate, armed Jewish organizations were fighting

1:35

against both Arab groups and the British administration. Their goal was to ensure continued Jewish

1:41

immigration and ultimately, independence. If you are wondering why immigration was considered

1:47

so vital to the Jewish community, you just need to recall that the persecution of Jews

1:53

across much of Europe was widespread in the pre-war years, with many nations unwilling

1:59

to accept Jewish refugees. The idea of a partition in Palestine was first

2:05

presented by the British Peel Commission, in 1937, after it became clear that there

2:10

was little chance of achieving order in Palestine. The Peel Commission proposed the creation

2:16

of two seperate states, one Arab and one Jewish, with population transfers happening to adjust

2:23

ethnic divides. The Jewish community was in favour of this proposal, seeing it as a first

2:28

step in the creation of a Jewish homeland but the Arab community opposed it as they

2:33

did not want to lose the land. The other prominent proposal made by the British

2:39

Government in the pre-Second World War era was the White Paper, published in 1939. It

2:45

called for the establishment of a Jewish national home inside of an independent Palestine within

2:52

the next 10 years. It also put a limit on Jewish immigration to a maximum of seventy-five

2:58

thousand people over five years and finally, it placed restrictions on the Jewish population

3:04

from buying more in Palestine. While the more moderate groups in the Arab

3:11

community were willing to accept this proposal, under pressure from the conservative and nationalist

3:16

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, it was eventually rejected. The Zionist groups

3:24

in the Jewish community were also against the White paper as it did not promise an independent

3:29

state for the Jews and also imposed restrictions to immigration. The rejection led to further

3:36

animosity between the Jewish community in Palestine and the British administration.

3:42

British opposition to Jewish migration to Palestine, still in line with the White Paper,

3:47

continued in 1945, after the end of the War. US President Truman asked Great Britain to

3:53

admit one hundred thousand survivors of the Holocaust which was subsequently rejected.

4:00

The presence of a very strong US Jewish political lobby, as well as favourable (some would very

4:08

much say guilty) public opinion towards the Jewish community in the wake of the Holocaust

4:13

caused the US to put a great deal of pressure on Britain to change their stance. Britain,

4:20

financially dependant on the United States for the rebuilding of their country, was in

4:24

a very difficult position. 1946 saw the the British yield somewhat with

4:30

the creation of the Anglo-American Committee, focused on the issues of immigration of European

4:35

Jews to Palestine but also pointedly ignored the issue of creating an independent Jewish

4:41

state. The plan was to deal with the pressing humanitarian issue and to leave the statehood

4:48

issue alone so as to avoid conflict with the Arab communities, both in Palestine as well

4:54

in the region overall. By April of 1946, the Committee had reached the unanimous decision

5:00

for the immediate admission of one hundred thousand Jewish refugees from Europe in Palestine

5:05

and well as to remove the White Paper restrictions on the purchase of land by Jews.

5:12

So how well was this received by both sides? If you guessed “Not Well” you would be

5:18

correct! The Arabs were not happy with the influx of more Jewish refugees who would continue

5:24

to take land and resources. There were even calls in the Arab World for Jihad and for

5:29

the Jews to be “removed”, which in this case translated to mean “annihilated”.

5:36

The Jewish community on the other hand, didn’t like the proposal as it ignored the call for

5:41

a Jewish state to be created. There were claims that it was an attempt to quote-unquote “clip

5:47

the wings of political zionism by treating the whole matter as a Jewish refugee problem.”.

5:52

So yeah, the Commission’s proposal was rejected by both sides.

5:59

While all this was going on, there were armed Jewish underground organizations such as the

6:04

Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang who were waging a guerrilla war against the British administration

6:10

in Palestine. This guerilla war was only intensifying the longer a settlement failed to be achieved.

6:18

The British responded, with the not-so-subtle Operation Agatha; the arrest of approximately

6:23

two thousand seven hundred Jewish activists. This was done to disrupt Jewish paramilitary

6:29

operations by seizing weapons and removing leadership. On the 21st of July 1946, the

6:35

British Military Headquarters, based in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed by

6:41

Irgun, resulting in 91 deaths. In response to THIS, over one hundred twenty thousand

6:48

Jews were summoned and interrogated by the Police. This was almost one out of every five

6:54

Jews in Palestine. The heavy-handed response of the British and

6:58

their inability to find a compromise, as well as the escalating violence did not play well

7:04

in the United States. The Americans put pressure on Britain and effectively forced them to

7:09

refer the matter to the United Nations. In May of 1947, the United Nations formed

7:15

a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), tasked with preparing recommendations for

7:20

the future of Palestine including how it should be governed as well as how to handle the Jewish

7:25

population in the Mandate. The Committee was composed of the so-called neutral states of

7:31

Australia, Netherlands, Iran, Sweden, India, Peru, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Uruguay,

7:38

and Yugoslavia. As you can probably guess, not all of these countries were really and

7:43

truly neutral. While the Jewish Agency cooperated with the

7:48

committee, the Arab leadership in Palestine boycotted any participation, claiming that

7:53

the committee was “pro-zionist”. The Committee representatives, in the course

8:02

of their considerations, carried out field trips to meet with Jewish representatives

8:06

in Palestine as well as with Arab leadership both inside Palestine as well as in other

8:12

countries in the region. They also spent time monitoring the attempts of Jewish people attempting

8:18

to illegally immigrate into Palestine as well as meeting with Jewish refugees who were still

8:24

in various holding camps across Europe. The Committee, as I’m sure you could expect,

8:30

was heavily lobbied by representatives from all sides; Jewish, Arab, and even the British.

8:37

Jewish groups wanted a partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The

8:43

Arabs lobbied against this outcome, warning that a divided Palestine could lead to catastrophe

8:48

in the region. The British, on the other hand lobbied in favour of Partition as the only

8:53

feasible option. On September 3, 1947, the United Nations Special

8:58

Committee on Palestine published its report. It proposed the establishment of two separate

9:04

nations, one Arab and one Jewish, but that would retain an economic union. Jerusalem

9:10

would be governed by the international community. The proposal was sent to the United Nations

9:15

General Assembly to be voted on. Notably, both the United States and the Soviet Union

9:20

were in favour of the proposal for partition. How did the newly emerged Superpowers view

9:27

this proposal and how did they react to it? Pro-Zionist movements in the United States

9:32

had launched an intense lobbying campaign to secure public support for the plan and

9:37

to encourage the US government to apply pressure on other countries to also back the proposal.

9:43

President Truman, not personally happy with the lobbying taking place, still put his support

9:48

behind the plan, mostly as a result of electoral considerations with a Presidential Election

9:54

approaching. A formal endorsement was given on October 11, 1947 and was followed by a

10:01

statement, signed by 26 of the US Senators who wielded influence on foreign aid bills,

10:07

calling on other states to support the plan. Nobody should be surprised that the United

10:12

States, who was so busy financing the reconstruction of a war-torn world, was using its financial

10:18

muscle to get countries to do what it wanted. It is reported that at least France, Haiti,

10:25

the Philippines and Liberia voted in favour of the UN partition plan based on financial

10:30

pressure from the US. Ok, so now we know why and how the Americans

10:36

were in favour of the Partition of Palestine. So why were the Soviets?

10:41

While official Soviet ideology was critical of Zionism, describing it as bourgeois nationalism,

10:47

Stalin, forever the calculating pragmatist, chose not to see this matter through the lens

10:52

of ideology but rather as someone looking for the best geopolitical outcome for his

10:57

country! The Soviet leadership saw the Arab countries as being pro-British and hoped that

11:03

the creation of a Jewish state in the region would disrupt British dominance. Stalin also

11:09

hoped that the future Jewish state would be Socialist in nature and align itself with

11:14

the Soviet Union. With this in mind, Moscow pushed its socialist

11:19

allies to support the partition plan in the UN General Assembly. As the plan required

11:24

a two-thirds majority vote to succeed, the support of the Moscow-led socialist countries

11:28

was crucial. Andrei Gromyko, now the Soviet Ambassador to the UN made an impassioned speech

11:35

before the vote was held, calling for an independent Jewish state. He called back to the immense

11:41

suffering that the Jewish people had endured through the Holocaust in order to justify

11:45

Soviet support. As a side note, Soviet support for the Jewish

11:50

state continued, even after the declaration of independence of Israel, and many of the

11:55

weapons used by the Israelis in the First Arab-Israeli War originated from the Skoda

11:59

factories in Czechoslovakia, sold to the Jewish state under Soviet auspices. We are going

12:05

to cover more about this conflict in upcoming episodes so make sure to check it out!

12:10

So this all looks pretty favourable for the Jewish community in Palestine. But how did

12:15

the Arabs feel about all this? This was, after all, their land. As I’m sure you already

12:21

know, or at least can guess, they were diametrically opposed. Arab leaders applied pressure of

12:28

their own in the international community to vote against the plan. The Iraqi Prime Minister

12:33

warned, using very harsh words, that recognition of the plan would lead to a revolt by the

12:38

Arabs of not only Palestine but in other nations as well, and would create a great danger to

12:45

the Jewish communities across the entire region. The head of the Egyptian delegation in the

12:51

General Assembly echoed these warnings, warning of inevitable bloodshed and danger to a million

12:57

Jews living in the Arab countries. In our next episode, we will talk more about the

13:03

Arab countries in this period. The vote on the partition plan was held in

13:08

United Nations General Assembly on the 27th of November, 1947. Thirty-three countries,

13:15

including the United States and the Soviet Union voted in favour while only 13, almost

13:21

all Muslim-majority countries, voted against the plan. The plan for the partition of Palestine

13:27

into a Jewish state and an Arab state was passed through the United Nations.

13:33

This marked the first major test of the UN of an extremely complicated matter, which

13:38

was never going to have an easy solution that could bring satisfaction to all sides. The

13:43

success of the proposed plan was dependent on the support of both the Soviet Union and

13:48

the United States, even if this support was the result of very different reasons. It is

13:54

one of the early examples of the two Superpowers using the UN as a place to flex their international

13:59

muscle over other countries instead of letting it be an impartial judge of international

14:05

conflicts. So this is the background on how the State

14:09

of Israel was to be formed but certainly not at all where the story ends. We here at the

14:15

Cold War will discuss what happens next in our future videos, so make sure you are subscribed

14:20

to our channel and have pressed the bell button. We rely on our patrons to create these videos,

14:27

so consider supporting us via www.patreon.com/thecoldwar. This the Cold War channel and we will catch

14:35

you on the next one.